About Our First Responder Service dog program
About us
Our lead trainer and co-owner is a First Responder with over twenty years experience working as a Fire Fighter/Paramedic. He has first hand experience dealing with PTSD and First Responders with PTSD. He is a certified ptsd service dog trainer.
A better life by utilizing a service dog
What can a ptsd service dog do for you? A dog can alert you to negative changes in your mood. By alerting you at the onset of a mood change your dog can redirect you and help alleviate stress. Dogs can provide deep pressure therapy. Deep pressure therapy has been proven to have a calming effect on your body. My personal favorite thing a service dog can do is body blocking. The dog positions itself between you and someone near you. keeping people at least an arm's length away. this can be extremely helpful if you struggle in crowded situations.
We can train your current dog or locate a dog for you
Not every dog is cut out to be a service dog. If you have a dog you would like to use, we offer a free evaluation to see if traing your dog to be a service dog is an option. training your dog to be a service dog If you do not have a dog or your dog would not be a good fit, we work with several breeders and shelters to find dogs with the appropriate temperament that will meet your needs.
How our program works
PTSD SEREVICE DOGS
We train PTSD service dogs exclusively for First Responders and Veterans. Training is done at cost as a way to give back to First Responders and Veterans dealing with job related PTSD. Our service dogs are trained in advanced off leash obedience. They are trained to perform certain tasks such as body blocking, (preventing people from crowding you) redirecting you when the dog senses you are upset and providing deep pressure therapy when you ask them too. The cost of our program ranges from $3,500 to $7,000 depending on if you already have a dog, or need a dog, and the breed of dog you choose. This is significantly lower than the average cost for a PTSD service dog, which is $20,000. We keep our cost at a minimum to serve and help our brother and sister First Responders.
A PTSD service dog must form a strong bond with their handler. For that reason, the handler must take part in a significant portion of the training. Our program takes between and 4 and 6 months from start to finish. There are multiple options for completeing our training classes. Although some of the work must be done onsite at our Hanson Ma portions of the class work can be done through zoom meetings and or our board and train program.
